248.4 

D844t) 


The  gift  of 

James  R.  and  Helen  E.  Davii 
in  memory  of 
Attorney  and  Mrs.  Joseph  L.  Shaw 


University  of  Illinois 
at  Urbana-Champaign 

BOOKSTACKS 


'Ir' 


{ 


V 


.1 


BRILLIANTS 


HENRY 


FROM 

DRUMMOND 


D 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/brilliantsOOdrum 


BRILLIANTS 


FROM 


HENRY  DRUMMOND 


COMPILED 

BY 


A.  L.  W. 


THE  CASSINO  ART  COMPANY 

BOSTON 


Copyright,  1892, 
Samuel  E.  Cassino. 


DRUMMOND, 

* * * * 

It  is  the  deliberate  verdict  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  that  it  is  better  not  to  live  than  not  to 
love. 

sf:  >}= 

The  infallible  receipt  for  Happiness  is  to  do 
good. 

^ 5fs 

i 

We  hear  much  of  love  to  God ; Christ 
spoke  much  of  love  to  man.  We  make  a 
great  deal  of  peace  with  heaven  ; Christ  spoke 
much  of  peace  on  earth. 

“The  greatest  thing,”  says  some  one,  “a 
man  can  do  for  his  Heavenly  Father  is  to 
be  kind  to  some  of  His  other  children.”  I 
wonder  why  it  is  that  we  are  not  all  kinder 
than  we  are?  How  much  the  world  needs  it ! 


DRUMMOND, 

After  you  have  been  kind,  after  Love  has 
stolen  forth  into  the  world  and  done  its  beau- 
tiful work,  go  back  into  the  shade  again  and 
say  nothing  about  it. 

* * * 

Give  me  the  charity  which  delights  not  in 
exposing  the  weakness  of  others,  but  “ cov- 
ereth  all  things.” 

* * * 

The  most  obvious  lesson  of  the  gospel  is 
that  there  is  no  happiness  in  having  and  get- 
ting, but  only  in  giving.  . . . Half  the  world 
is  on  the  wrong  scent  in  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness. They  think  it  consists  in  having  and 
getting,  and  in  being  served  by  others.  It 
consists  in  giving  and  in  serving  others.  And 
he  that  would  be  great  among  you,  let  him 
serve.  He  that  would  be  happy,  let  him  re- 
member that  it  is  more  blessed  — it  is  more 
happy  — to  give  than  to  receive. 

Sfc  * * 

I have  seen  almost  all  the  beautiful  things 
God  has  made ; I have  enjoyed  almost  every 
pleasure  that  God  has  planned  for  man  ; and 


DRUMMOND, 


yet  I can  look  back,  and  1 see  standing  out 
above  all  the  life  that  has  gone  four  or  five 
short  experiences  when  the  love  of  God  re- 
flected itself  in  some  poor  imitation,  some 
small  act  of  love  of  mine  — and  that  is  the 
thing  that  I get  comfort  from  now.  When  I 
think  about  my  past  life,  everything  else  has 
been  transitory — has  passed  away.  But  the 
acts  of  love  which  no  man  knows  about,  or 
ever  will  know  about,  they  never  fail. 

* * * 

The  cardinal  error  in  the  religious  life  is  to 
attempt  to  live  without  an  environment. 
Spiritual  experience  occupies  itself,  not  too 
much,  but  too  exclusively,  with  one  factor  — 
the  soul.  We  delight  in  dissecting  this  much- 
tortured  faculty,  from  time  to  time,  in  search 
of  a certain  something  which  we  call  our  faith 
— forgetting  that  faith  is  but  an  attitude,  an 
empty  hand  for  grasping  an  environing  Pres- 
ence. 

* * * 

Love  should  be  the  supreme  thing  because 
it  is  going  to  last : because  in  the  nature  of 


DRUMMOND, 

things  it  is  an  Eternal  Life.  It  is  a thing  that 
we  are  living  now,  not  that  we  get  when  we 
die ; that  we  shall  have  a poor  chance  of  get- 
ting when  we  die  unless  we  are  living  now. 

* * * 

What  is  the  Spiritual  Environment?  It  is 
God. 

* * * 

It  is  not  a strange  thing  for  the  soul  to  find 
its  life  in  (iod.  This  is  its  native  air.  God 
as  the  Environment  of  the  soul  has  been  from 
the  remotest  age  the  doctrine  of  all  the  deep- 
est thinkers  in  religion.  How  profoundly 
Hebrew  poetry  is  saturated  with  this  high 
thought  will  appear  when  we  try  to  conceive 
of  it  with  this  left  out. 

* * * 

We  fail  to  praise  the  ceaseless  ministry  of 
the  great  inanimate  world  around  us  only 
because  its  kindness  is  unobtrusive. 

* * * 

The  soul’s  atmosphere  is  the  daily  trial, 
circumstance,  and  temptation  of  the  world. 
As  it  is  life  alone  which  gives  the  plant  power 





DRUMMOND, 


to  utilize  the  elements,  and  as,  without  it, 
they  utilize  it,  so  it  is  the  spiritual  life  alone 
which  gives  the  soul  power  to  utilize  tempta- 
tion and  trial ; and  without  it  they  destroy 
the  soul.  How  shall  we  escape  if  we  refuse 
to  exercise  these  functions  ; in  other  words,  if 
we  neglect?  ...  It  is  a distinct  fact  by  it- 
self, which  we  can  hold  and  examine  sepa- 
rately, that  on  purely  natural  principles  the 
soul  that  is  left  to  itself  unwatched,  unculti- 
vated, unredeemed,  must  fall  away  into  death 
by  its  own  nature. 

* * * 

The  true  problem  of  the  spiritual  life  may 
be  said  to  be,  do  the  opposite  of  neglect.  . . . 
You  are  so  to  cultivate  the  soul  that  all  its 
powers  will  open  out  to  God,  and  in  behold- 
ing God  be  drawn  away  from  sin. 

* * * 

These  two.  Heredity  and  Environment, 
are  the  master  - influences  of  the  organic 
world.  These  have  made  all  of  us  what  we 
are.  These  forces  are  still  ceaselessly  play- 
ing upon  all  our  lives.  And  he  who  truly 


understands  these  influences ; he  who  has 
decided  how  much  to  allow  to  each  ; he  who 
can  regulate  new  forces  as  they  arise,  or  ad- 
just them  to  the  old,  so  directing  them  as  at 
one  moment  to  make  them  co-operate,  at 
another  to  counteract  one  another,  under- 
stands the  7'ationale  of  personal  development. 
To  seize  continuously  the  opportunity  of 
more  and  more  perfect  adjustment  to  better 
and  higher  conditions,  to  balance  some  in- 
ward evil  with  some  purer  influence  acting 
from  without ; in  a word,  to  make  our  envi- 
ronment at  the  same  time  it  is  making  us,  — 
these  are  the  secrets  of  a well-ordered  and 
successful  life. 

* * * 


If  a man  love  God,  you  will  not  have  to 
tell  him  that  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law. 
“Take  not  His  name  in  vain.”  He  would 
never  dream  of  taking  His  name  in  vain  if  he 
loved  Him.  “ Remember  the  Sabbath  day 
to  keep  it  holy.”  He  would  be  too  glad  to 
have  a day  to  meditate  upon  the  object  of  his 
affection.  Love  would  fulfil  all  these  laws. 


DRUMMOND, 


And  so,  if  he  loved  man,  you  would  never 
require  to  tell  him  to  honor  his  father  and 
mother.  He  would  do  that  without  thinking 
about  it.  It  would  be  preposterous  to  tell 
him  not  to  kill.  He  would  never  dream  of 
it.  It  would  be  absurd  to  tell  him  not  to 
steal.  He  would  never  steal  from  those  he 
loved.  He  would  rather  they  possessed  the 
goods  than  that  he  should  possess  it.  It 
would  be  absurd  to  tell  him  not  to  bear  false 
witness  against  his  neighbor.  If  he  loved 
him  it  would  be  the  last  thing  he  would  do. 
And  you  would  never  have  to  tell  him  not  to 
covet  what  his  neighbor  had.  He  would  be 
rejoicing  in  his  neighbor’s  possessions.  So 
you  see  “ love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law.” 

* * * 

No  single  fact  in  science  has  ever  discred- 
ited a fact  in  religion.  ...  If  the  purifica- 
tion of  religion  comes  from  science,  the 
purification  of  science,  in  a deeper  sense, 
shall  come  from  religion.  The  true  ministry 
of  nature  must  at  last  be  honored,  and  sci-; 
ence  take  its  place  as  the  great  expositor. 


DRUMMOND. 


Give  pleasure.  Lose  no  chance  in  giving 
pleasure.  For  that  is  the  ceaseless  and 

anonymous  triumph  of  a truly  loving  spirit. 

* * * 

Life  is  full  of  opportunities  for  learning 
love.  Every  man  and  woman  every  day  has 
a thousand  of  them.  The  world  is  not  a 
playground ; it  is  a schoolroom ; and  its 
great  lesson  that  we  are  always  to  learn  is  the 
lesson  of  love  in  all  its  parts. 

* ♦ * 

What  makes  a man  a good  football  player? 
Practice.  What  makes  a man  a good  artist 

— a good  sculptor  — a good  musician  ? Prac- 
tice. What  makes  a man  a good  athlete? 
Practice.  What  makes  a man  a good  man? 
Practice.  Nothing  else.  There  is  nothing 
capricious  about  religion.  We  do  not  get  the 
soul  in  a different  way  — under  different  laws 

— from  that  in  which  we  get  the  body.  If  a 
man  doesn't  exercise  his  arm,  he  gets  no 
biceps  muscle  ; and  if  a man  doesn’t  exercise 
his  soul,  he  has  no  muscle  in  his  soul  — no 
strength  of  character,  no  robustness.  Love 


DRUMMOND, 


xs  not  a thing  of  emotion  and  gush.  It  is  a 
robust,  strong,  manly,  vigorous  expression  of 
the  whole  character  and  nature  in  its  fullest  de- 
velopment. And  these  things  are  only  to  be 
acquired  by  daily  and  hourly  practice.  Don’t 
quarrel,  therefore,  with  your  lot  in  life.  Don’t 
quarrel  with  the  quality  you  have  of  life. 
Don’t  be  angry  that  you  have  to  go  through  a 
network  of  temptation,  that  you  are  haunted 
with  it  every  day.  That  is  your  practice, 
which  God  appoints  you.  That  is  your  prac- 
tice ; and  it  is  having  its  work  in  making 
you  patient,  and  humble,  and  sincere,  and 
unselfish,  and  kind,  and  courteous,  and 
guileless. 

* * * 

If  we  neglect  a garden  plant,  then  a natural 
principle  of  deterioration  comes  in,  and 
changes  it  into  a worse  plant.  . . . Or,  if  we 
neglect  almost  any  of  the  domestic  animals, 
they  will  rapidly  revert  to  wild  and  worthless 
forms.  Now,  the  same  thing  exactly  would 
happen  in  the  case  of  you  or  me.  Why 
should  man  be  an  exception  to  any  of  the 
laws  of  nature  1 


DRUMMOND. 


, It  is  open  to  any  one  to  aim  at  a self- 
sufficient  life,  but  he  will  find  no  encourage- 
ment in  nature.  The  life  of  the  body  may 
complete  itself  in  the  physical  world ; that  is 
its  legitimate  environment.  The  life  of  the 
senses,  high  and  low,  may  perfect  itself  in 
nature.  Even  the  life  of  thought  may  find 
a large  complement  in  surrounding  things. 
But  the  higher  thought,  and  the  conscience, 
and  the  religious  life,  can  only  perfect  them- 
selves in  God.  . . . The  soul,  like  the  body, 
can  never  perfect  itself  in  isolation.  The  law 
for  both  is  to  be  complete  in  the  appropriate 
environment.  And  the  perfection  to  be 
sought  in  the  spiritual  world  is  a perfection 
of  relation,  a perfect  adjustment  of  that 
which  is  becoming  perfect  to  that  which  is 
perfect. 

* * * 

Have  you  ever  noticed  how  much  of  Christ’s 
life  was  spent  in  doing  kind  things  — in  merely 
doing  kind  things  ? Run  over  it  with  that  in 
view,  and  you  will  find  that  He  spent  a great 
proportion  of  His  time  simply  in  making 


DRUMMOND, 


people  happy  — in  doing  good  turns  to 
people. 

sf:  * * 

To  refuse  to  deny  one’s  self  is  just  to  be 
left  with  the  self  undenied.  When  the  bal- 
ance of  life  is  struck,  the  self  will  be  found 
still  there.  The  discipline  of  life  was  meant 
to  destroy  this  self,  but  that  discipline  having 
been  evaded,  — and  we  all  to  some  extent 
have  opportunities,  and  too  often  exercise 
them,  of  taking  the  narrow  path  by  the 
shortest  cuts,  — its  purpose  is  balked.  But 
the  soul  is  the  loser. 

* * # 

There  is  only  one  thing  greater  than  hap- 
piness in  the  world,  and  that  is  holiness ; 
and  that  is  not  in  our  keeping ; God  reserves 
that  to  Himself ; but  what  He  has  put  in  our 
power  is  the  happiness  of  our  fellow-creatures, 
and  that  is  to  be  secured  by  our  being  kind. 

* * * 

The  reward  of  being  gentle  is  to  become 
more  gentle.  The  reward  of  being  liberal  is 
to  become  more  liberal ; of  controlling  tern- 


DRUMMOND. 

per  is  to  become  more  sweet-tempered.  The 
penalty  of  being  hard  is  to  become  hardened, 
of  being  unforgiving  is  to  become  cruel. 

* * * 

It  is  the  soul  in  communion  that  finds  out 
what  that  soul  in  service  ought  to  do. 

* * Sf: 

Every  appeal  to  your  impatience  is  an 
opportunity  to  learn  patience. 

* * * 

Nothing  happens  in  this  world  by  chance. 
There  is  no  “ perhaps  ” in  nature  ; there  is  a 
cause  for  everything  that  we  see,  or  feel,  or 
hear. 

* * * 

The  development  of  any  organism  in  any 
direction  is  dependent  on  its  environment. 
A living  cell  cut  off  from  air  will  die.  A seed- 
germ  apart  from  moisture  and  an  appropriate 
temperature  will  make  the  ground  its  grave 
for  centuries.  Human  nature,  likewise,  is 
subject  to  similar  conditions.  It  can  only 
develop  in  presence  of  its  environment.  No 
matter  what  its  possibilities  may  be,  no  matter 


DRUMMOND, 


what  seeds  of  thought  or  virtue,  what  germs 
of  genius  or  of  art  lie  latent  in  its  breast, 
until  the  appropriate  environment  presents 
itself  the  correspondence  is  denied,  the  de- 
velopment discouraged,  the  most  splendid 
possibilities  of  life  remain  unrealized,  and 
thought  and  virtue,  genius  and  art,  are  dead. 

The  true  environment  of  the  moral  life  is 
God.  Here  conscience  wakes.  Here  kindles 
love.  Duty  here  becomes  heroic ; and  that 
righteousness  begins  to  live  which  alone  is  to 
live  forever.  But  if  this  atmosphere  is  not, 
the  dwarfed  soul  must  perish  for  mere  want 
of  its  native  air ; and  its  death  is  a strictly 
natural  death.  It  is  not  an  exceptional  judg- 
ment upon  Atheism.  In  the  same  circum- 
stances, in  the  same  averted  relation  to  their 
environment,  the  poet,  the  musician,  the 
artist,  would  alike  perish  to  poetry,  to  music, 
and  to  art. 

* * 

Keep  in  the  midst  of  life.  Don’t  isolate 
yourself.  Be  among  men,  and  among  things, 
and  among  troubles,  and  amongst  difficulties 


DRUMMOND. 


and  obstacles.  You  remember  Goethe’s 
words:  “ Talent  develops  itself  in  solitude; 
character  in  the  stream  of  life.” 

* * * 

Few  men  know  how  to  live.  We  grow  up 
at  random,  carrying  into  mature  life  the 
merely  animal  methods  and  motives  which 
we  had  as  little  children.  And  it  does  not 
occur  to  us  that  all  this  must  be  changed ; 
that  much  of  it  must  be  reversed : that  life  is 
the  finest  of  the  Fine  Arts ; that  it  has  to  be 
learned  with  life-long  patience,  and  that  the 
years  of  our  pilgrimage  are  all  too  short  to 
master  it  triumphantly. 

* * * 

Who  has  not  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
he  is  but  a part,  a fraction,  of  some  larger 
whole?  Who  does  not  miss  at  every  turn  of 
his  life  an  absent  God?  That  man  is  but  a 
part,  he  knows,  for  there  is  room  in  him  for 
more.  That  God  is  the  other  part,  he  feels, 
because  at  times  He  satisfies  his  need.  Who 
does  not  tremble  often  under  that  sicklier 
symptom  of  his  incompleteness,  his  want  of 


DRUMMOND.  ' 

spiritual  energy,  his  helplessness  with  sin: 
But  now  he  understands  both,  — the  void  in 
his  life,  the  powerlessness  of  his  will.  He  un- 
derstands that,  like  all  other  energy,  spiritual 
power  is  contained  in  environment.  He  finds 
here  at  last  the  true  root  of  all  human  frailty, 
— emptiness,  nothingness,  sin.  This  is  why, 
“Without  Me  ye  can  do  nothing.”  Power- 
less is  the  normal  state,  not  only  of  this  but 
of  every  organism,  of  every  organism  apart 
from  its  environment. 


A religion  of  efibrtless  adoration  may  be  a 
religion  for  an  angel,  but  never  for  a man. 
Not  in  the  contemplative,  but  in  the  active, 
lies  true  hope  ; not  in  rapture,  but  in  reality, 
lies  true  life  ; not  in  the  realm  of  ideals,  but 
among  tangible  things,  is  man’s  sanctification 
wrought. 


Temper  is  significant,  not  in  what  it  is 
alone,  but  in  what  it  reveals.  . . . It  is  a test 
for  love,  a symptom,  a revelation  of  an  un- 
loving nature  at  bottom.  It  is  the  intermit- 


DRUMMOND, 


tent  fever  which  bespeaks  unintermittent 
disease  within  ; the  occasional  bubble  escap- 
ing to  the  surface,  which  betrays  some  rot- 
tenness underneath  ; a sample  of  the  most 
hidden  products  of  the  soul  dropped  involun- 
tarily when  off  one’s  guard ; in  a word,  the 
lightning  form  of  a hundred  hideous  and  un- 
Christian  sins. 

* * * 

The  alternatives  of  the  intellectual  life  are 
Christianity  or  Agnosticism.  The  Agnostic 
is  right  when  he  trumpets  his  incompleteness. 
He  who  is  not  complete  in  Him  must  be  for- 
ever incomplete.  . . . The  problems  of  the 
heart  and  conscience  are  infinitely  more  per- 
plexing than  those  of  the  intellect.  Has  love 
no  future?  Has  right  no  triumph?  Is  the 
unfinished  self  to  remain  unfinished?  Again, 
the  alternatives  are  two,  Christianity  or  Pes- 
simism. But  when  we  ascend  the  further 
height  of  the  religious  nature,  the  crisis 
comes.  There,  without  environment,  the 
darkness  is  unutterable.  So  maddening  now 
becomes  the  mystery,  that  men  are  compelled 


DRUMMOND. 


to  construct  an  environment  for  themselves. 
No  environment  here  is  unthinkable.  An 
altar  of  some  sort  men  must  have  — God,  or 
nature,  or  law.  But  the  anguish  of  Athe- 
ism is  only  a negative  proof  of  man’s  incom- 
pleteness. 

* * * 

No  man  can  become  a saint  in  his  sleep ; 
and  to  fulfil  the  condition  requires  a certain 
amount  of  prayer  and  meditation  and  time, 
just  as  improvement  in  any  direction,  bodily 
or  mental,  requires  a certain  amount  of 
preparation  and  time. 

^ ^ ^ 

It  is  a wonderful  thing  that  here  and  there 
in  this  hard,  uncharitable  world,  there  should 
still  be  left  a few  rare  souls  who  think  no 
evil. 

* * * 

We  know  but  little  now  about  the  condi- 
tions of  the  life  that  is  to  come.  But  what 
is  certain  is  that  love  must  last.  God,  the 
Eternal  God,  is  Love.  Covet,  therefore, 
that  everlasting  gift.  » 


DRUMMOND. 


The  final  test  of  religion  at  the  great  as- 
sizes is  not  religiousness,  but  love.  Not 
what  I have  done,  not  what  I have  believed, 
not  what  I have  achieved,  but  how  I have 
loved  : according  to  the  number  of  cups  of 
cold  water  we  have  given  in  the  name  of 
Christ. 

* * * 

There  is  nothing  so  divine  on  this  earth  as 
a friendship.  What  is  heaven?  Heaven  is  a 
father  and  his  children,  that  is  all.  It  is  the 
perpetual  friendship.  You  can’t  get  a higher 
definition  of  the  Christian’s  relations  to  God 
than  friendship.  . . . Friendship  is  the  nearest 
thing  we  know  to  what  religion  is.  God  is 
love.  And  to  make  religion  akin  to  friend- 
ship is  simply  to  give  it  the  highest  expres- 
sion conceivable  by  man.  ...  We  find  that 
religion  reduces  itself  to  friendship  with 
God. 

* * * 

Under  the  right  conditions  it  is  as  natural 
for  character  to  become  beautiful  as  for  a 
flower:  and  if  on^God’s  earth  there  is  not 


DRUMMOND, 

some  machinery  for  effecting  it,  the  supreme 
gift  to  the  world  has  been  forgotten.  This 
is  simply  what  man  was  made  for.  With 
Browning,  “ I say  that  man  was  made  to 
grow,  not  stop.” 

How  many  prodigals  are  kept  out  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  by  the  unlovely  character 
of  those  who  profess  to  be  inside  ! 

* * * 

Become  pure  in  heart.  The  pure  in  heart 
shall  see  God.  Here,  then,  is  one  opening 
for  soul  — culture  — the  avenue  through 
purity  of  heart  to  the  spiritual  seeing  of 
God. 

* * * 

He  who  knows  not  of  God  may  not  be 
a monster : we  cannot  say  he  will  not  be  a 
dwarf.  . . .You  can  dwarf  a soul  just  as  you 
can  dwarf  a plant,  by  depriving  it  of  a full 
environment.  Such  a soul  for  a time  may 
have  “a  name  to  live.”  Its  character  may 
betray  no  sign  of  atrophy.  But  its  very  virtue 
somehow  has  the  pallor  of  a flower  that  is 


DRUMMOND. 


grown  in  darkness,  or  as  the  herb  which  has 
never  seen  the  sun,  no  fragrance  breathes 
from  its  spirit.  . . With  Ruskin,  “ I do  not 
wonder  at  what  men  suffer,  but  I do  wonder 
often  at  what  they  lose.” 

* 5f!  * 

He  who  seeks  to  serve  two  masters  misses 
the  benediction  of  both. 

* * * 

The  end  of  salvation  is  perfection  — the 
Christlike  mind,  character,  and  life.  . . . 
Perfect  life  is  not  merely  the  possessing  of 
perfect  functions,  but  of  perfect  functions 
perfectly  adjusted  to  each  other  and  all  con- 
spiring to  a single  result,  the  perfect  work- 
ing of  the  whole  organism.  It  is  not  said 
that  the  character  will  develop  in  all  its  ful- 
ness in  this  life.  That  were  a time  far  too 
short  for  an  evolution  so  magnificent.  In 
this  world  only  the  cornless  ear  is  seen ; 
sometimes  only  the  small  yet  still  prophetic 
blade. 

* * * 

There  are  people  who  go  about  the  world 
looking  out  for  slights,  and  they  are  neces- 


i 


i 

J 


DRUMMOND. 


sarily  miserable,  for  they  find  them  at  every 
turn  — especially  the  imaginary  ones.  One 
has  the  same  pity  for  such  men  as  for  the 
very  poor.  They  are  the  morally  illiterate. 
They  have  had  no  real  education,  for  they 
have  never  learned  how  to  live. 

^ * 

One  little  weakness  we  are  apt  to  fancy, 
all  men  must  be  allowed,  and  we  even  claim 
a certain  indulgence  for  that  apparent  neces- 
sity of  nature  which  we  call  our  besetting 
sin.  Yet  to  break  with  the  lower  environ- 
ment at  all,  to  many,  is  to  break  at  this  single 
point.  . . . Now,  if  contact  at  this  point  be 
not  broken  off,  they  are  virtually  in  contact 
still  with  the  whole  environment.  There 
may  be  only  one  avenue  between  the  new 
life  and  the  old ; it  may  be  but  a small  and 
subterranean  passage,  but  this  is  sufficient  to 
keep  the  old  life  in.  So  long  as  that  remains, 
the  victim  is  not  “ dead  unto  sin,”  and  there- 
fore he  cannot  “ live  unto  God.”  . . . Such 
are  the  mysterious  unity  and  correlation  of 
functions  in  the  spiritual  organism  that  the 


DRUMMOND, 

disease  of  one  member  may  involve  the  ruin 
of  the  whole. 

♦ * * 

There  is  a disease  called  “ touchiness”  — 
a disease  which,  in  spite  of  its  innocent  name, 
is  one  of  the  gravest  sources  of  restlessness 
in  the  world.  Touchiness,  when  it  becomes 
chronic,  is  a morbid  condition  of  the  inward 
disposition.  It  is  self-love  inflamed  to  the 
acute  point.  The  cure  is  to  shift  the  yoke  to 
some  other  place ; to  let  men  and  things 
touch  us  through  some  new  and  perhaps  as 
yet  unused  part  of  our  nature : to  become 
meek  and  lowly  in  heart  while  the  old  nature 
is  becoming  numb  from  want  of  use. 

* * ♦ 

Death  to  the  lower  self  is  the  nearest  gate 
and  the  quickest  road  to  life. 

* * * 

To  seize  continuously  the  opportunity  of 
more  and  more  perfect  adjustment  to  better 
and  higher  conditions,  to  balance  some  in- 
ward evil  with  some  purer  influence  acting 
from  without ; in  a word,  to  make  our  environ- 


DRUMMOND. 


ment  at  the  same  time  that  it  is  making  us — • 
these  are  the  secrets  of  a well-ordered  and 
successful  life. 


* * * 


There  are  some  men  and  some  women  in 
whose  company  we  are  always  at  our  best. 
While  with  them  we  cannot  think  mean 
thoughts  or  speak  ungenerous  words.  Their 
mere  presence  is  elevation,  purification,  sanc- 
tity. All  the  best  stops  in  our  nature  are 
drawn  out  by  their  intercourse,  and  we  find 
a music  in  our  souls  that  was  never  there 
before. 

* * * 


What  a noble  gift  it  is,  the  power  of  play- 
ing upon  the  souls  and  wills  of  men,  and 
rousing  them  to  lofty  purposes  and  holy,^  -T 

deeds ! ■ T 

* * * . < 


Spiritual  life  is  not  something  outside 
ourselves.  The  idea  is  not  that  Christ  is  in 
heaven,  and  that  we  can  stretch  out  some 
mysterious  faculty  and  deal  with  Him  there. 
This  is  the  vague  form  in  which  many  con- 


W 


V 


i."".  ^ ceive  the  truth,  but  it  is  contrary  to  Christ’s 
teaching  and  to  the  analogy  of  nature.  Life 
is  definite  and  resident ; and  spiritual  life  is 
not  a visit  from  a force,  but  a resident  tenant 
in  the  soul. 

* * * 

After  seasons  of  much  discouragement, 
with  the  sore  sense  upon  us  of  our  abject 
feebleness,  we  do  confer  with  ourselves,  in- 
sisting for  the  thousandth  time,  “ My  soul, 
wait  thou  only  upon  God.”  But  the  lesson 
is  soon  forgotten.  The  strength  supplied  we 
speedily  credit  to  our  achievement ; and  even 
the  temporary  success  is  mistaken  for  a 
symptom  of  improved  inward  vitality.  Once 
more  we  become  self-existent.  Once  more  we 
go  on  living  without  an  environment.  And 
once  more,  after  days  of  wasting  without 
repairing,  of  spending  without  replenishing, 
we  begin  to  perish  with  hunger,  only  return- 
ing to  God  again,  as  a last  resort,  when  we 
have  reached  starvation  point.  . . . God  is 
our  refuge  and  strength.  Communion  wdth 
God,  therefore,  is  a scientific  necessity ; and 


DRUMMOND. 


nothing  will  more  help  the  defeated  spirit 
which  is  struggling  in  the  wreck  of  its  reli- 
gious life  than  a common-sense  hold  of  this 
plain  biological  principle  that  without  en- 
vironment he  can  do  nothing. 

* * * 

What  is  the  end  of  life  ? The  end  of  life 
is  not  to  do  good,  although  many  of  us  think 
so.  It  is  not  to  win  souls,  although  I once 
thought  so.  The  end  of  life  is  to  do  the  will 
of  God.  That  may  be  in  the  line  of  doing 
good  or  winning  souls,  or  it  may  not.  For 
the  individuals  the  answer  to  the  question, 
“ What  is  the  end  of  my  life  ? ” is  to  do  the 
will  of  God,  whatever  that  may  be.  . . . 
If  we  could  have  no  ambition  past  the  will  of 
God,  our  lives  would  be  successful.  If  we 
could  say,  “ I have  no  ambition  to  go  to  the 
heathen,  I have  no  ambition  to  win  souls, 
my  ambition  is  to  do  the  will  of  God,  what- 
ever that  may  be  ; that  makes  all  lives  equally 
great,  or  equally  small,  because  the  only  great 
thing  in  a life  is  what  of  God’s  will  there  is 
in  it.  The  maximum  achievement  of  any 


DRUMMOND. 


man’s  life  after  it  is  all  over  is  to  have  done 
the  will  of  God.  No  man  or  woman  can  have 
done  any  more  with  a life.  . . . There- 
fore, the  supreme  principle  upon  which  we 
have  to  run  our  lives  is  to  adhere,  through 
good  report  and  ill,  through  temptation  and 
prosperity  and  adversity,  to  the  will  of  God, 
wherever  that  may  lead  us.  It  may  take  you 
away  to  China;  or  you  who  are  going  to 
Africa  may  have  to  stay  where  you  are ; you 
who  are  going  to  be  an  evangelist  may  have  to 
go  into  business  ; and  you  who  are  going  into 
business  may  have  to  become  an  evangelist. 
But  there  is  no  happiness  or  success  in  any 
life  till  that  principle  is  taken  possession  of. 

* * * 

How  can  you  build  up  a life  on  that  princi- 
ple ? Let  me  give  you  an  outline  of  a little 
Bible  reading.  The  definition  of  an  ideal 
life  : “A  man  after  mine  own  heart,  who  Avill 
fulfil  all  my  law.”  The  object  of  life:  “I 
come  to  do  thy  will,  O God!”  The  first 
thing  you  need  after  life  is  food  : “ My  meat 
is  to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me.” 


DRUMMOND, 

The  next  thing  you  need  after  food  is  soci- 
ety: “ He  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father 
in  heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother,  and  sister, 
and  mother.” 

You  want  education  : “ Teach  me  to  do 
thy  will,  O God  ! ” 

You  want  pleasure  : “I  delight  to  do  thy 
will,  O God  ! ” 

A whole  life  can  be  built  upon  that  one  ver- 
tebral column ; and  then  when  all  is  over, 
“ he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  for- 


ever. 


/ .-I'*' 


